Years Later
by idealskeptic
Summary: Every five years, ceremonies will mark the end of the Hunger Games. Each of the seven surviving victors will come together in the Capitol to mark the occasion. They all have their demons and they all handle the memories different. But they do it together... Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, Annie, Beetee, Enobaria
1. Five Years Later - Peeta

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**Author's Note: **I hope this doesn't seem random. It's just going to be scenes from the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries of the end of the Hunger Games. Capitol ceremonies and all that. Total focus on the seven surviving victors but Gale and company will be around. Some bits will be short and some will be long. Let's see what happens, shall we?

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**Five Years Later – Peeta**

Peeta had the dream again, the one that had haunted him since he was a boy. It was the dream where Katniss was taken from him and he couldn't find her. It was a terrifying dream.

When he woke up, the spot on the bed beside him was empty but it'd been slept in.

It took a minute for his heart to stop hammering in his chest and for his mind to stop spinning to the worst case scenarios but when it did, it all made sense.

It was time to go to the Capitol for the ceremonies in honor of the fifth anniversary of the end of the Hunger Games. That meant that Katniss had fled to her refuge in the woods until it was time for her to leave District 12 for the first time since she assassinated President Coin.

Peeta knew that Plutarch had carefully arranged the perfect lure to get Katniss to the Capitol and he hated the man for it. Katniss didn't need to open hospital wings dedicated to her sister's memory, but she wanted to. Plutarch knew that as well as Peeta did.

He went to the kitchen and lost himself in baking; cheese buns for Katniss, rye bread for Haymitch, cookies for Posy Hawthorne, and strawberry bread for himself and the rest of Posy's family.

With that task done, he walked into the backyard and watched the trees for signs of Katniss. He felt lost without her and he needed her to come back to him. He wouldn't go after her though, because the woods were her place just like the kitchen was his.

He sat on a bench Haymitch had built and waited.

While he waited, he tried to lock all his demons from the hijacking and the nightmares away in carefully sealed boxes. It wouldn't work, of that he had no doubt, but Dr. Aurelius constantly reminded him both that it never hurt to try and that it would get easier in time.

He was wrong. It did hurt to try. But he was right. It did get easier with time.

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	2. Five Years Later - Haymitch

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

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**Five Years Later – Haymitch**

Haymitch looked longingly at the half empty bottle of white liquor on the ledge above his kitchen sink. He'd sworn off alcohol to be ready for the trip, save for a quarter bottle a day. _That_ quarter bottle had been gone before sunrise. Now it was just past noon and he wasn't at all sure he could force himself to the train station without a little bit more.

His hand was on the neck of the bottle when a movement along the line of trees caught his eye.

The boy and the girl were the reasons Haymitch couldn't drink his way onto the train. He thought it bordered on idiotic that they were going to the Capitol at all when they were still a little bit nuts but the imbecile Heavensbee had decided to name the children's wing of the sparkly new hospital after Katniss' sister so Katniss, of course, insisted on going. Where Katniss went, Peeta went. And Haymitch tagged along as the mentor he would always be to them.

"Damn Heavensbee," he muttered as the phone chimed behind him. It was Effie Trinket, he knew that. He knew too that if he ignored the ringing and didn't yell at her for annoying him, then she would figure he had things under control.

It was a liberal use of the phrase, but it worked. Effie understood things like letting things be. It had been hard for her, but she'd learned. Months in a Capitol cell had helped with that.

He bid the bottle goodbye and grabbed his suitcase. "You got any bread?" he called out as he stepped onto his porch. "I missed breakfast."

Peeta always had bread, especially when he was nervous. Then he had a _lot_ of bread. He gave Haymitch a loaf of rye and turned his gaze to the trees while his mentor tore chunks off the loaf and chewed them.

It didn't take an idiot to figure out that the girl was in the woods. Haymitch only hoped she'd be back before they missed the train. Or maybe they could just skip it all.

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	3. Five Years Later - Katniss

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**Five Years Later – Katniss**

She had stopped herself before she hit him.

Thoughts of muttations and tributes slashing viciously at each other had kept her awake long after she meant to be asleep. When she finally had fallen asleep, the muttations and tributes came to life and what sleep she got was fitful and tormented.

It was still dark but she knew she wouldn't go back to sleep so Katniss slipped away from Peeta and pulled on her boots. He'd know where she went because she'd slept in her clothes.

She kissed her fingers and touched them to his forehead, knowing that her hair always tickled him and woke him up if she leaned over to kiss him. Then she left the house.

The forest surrounding the Victor's Village was completely deserted of human life but loud with the noises of the animals that lived there.

Katniss hiked quickly across the familiar, unmarked paths in the forest and didn't stop until she reached the lake where her father had taught her to swim.

The forest was suddenly too much like an arena, like her first arena, and she shed her boots, jacket, and belt before diving into the cool, crisp water. The water muted the world around her and she could sit still on the bottom until she needed to breathe. She repeated the process a handful of times before another calming thought occurred to her.

She needed to find herself.

So she used her fingers and her toes to dig up the aquatic plant she was named after.

She filled her bag with them.

It was a ridiculous amount of katniss but she couldn't help it. She decided that she'd take them to the Capitol with her and, whenever she got overwhelmed as she knew she would, she would remind herself who she was.

It was stupidity that made sense.

When Katniss saw that the sun was nearly at noon, she quickly gathered her things and set out for home. Peeta would be worried about her. He'd be torn between coming after her and respecting her privacy in the woods. He needed her.

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	4. Five Years Later - Johanna

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**Five Years Later – Johanna**

The ax sunk deep into the wall.

It didn't make Johanna feel any better.

Giving a primal scream, she yanked the handle and fled the house with the ax clutched in her hand. She felt marginally better as she chopped down the dead tree in her backyard. Marginally.

It had taken her almost two full years to get into a proper shower and another year to take a bath on her own. Now, on the eve of the trip to the Capitol, the sight of water made her break down completely.

"I'll just buy perfume," she muttered to herself as she relished the thwacking sound the gleaming metal made against the aged, diseased wood. "They can screw themselves if they have a problem with that."

"Who is _they_ and what is _that_?"

Johanna spun around to face the man the voice belonged to. She almost threw the ax at him, but she stopped herself just in time. "Don't you know better than to sneak up on a batshit crazy victor, Hawthorne?" she hissed. "I could've killed you."

"You keep saying that," Gale said easily. "Could have, should have, would have. I'm starting to doubt your intentions."

She narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Twelve with your family?"

"And Katniss? I don't think so." He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against a still living tree. "My family will be in the Capitol. I'll meet them there. I thought you might need me here."

The very last thing Johanna wanted was to need him but she did. Gale Hawthorne had been the reason she was able to fully immerse herself in water. He'd held her the first time she did it and he didn't let her drown.

She'd thanked him in ways she knew would have made Katniss Everdeen blush a dozen shades of red at once.

They'd repeated things again and again over the last few years. Nothing was official, but she needed him. She was learning it was just easier to admit it.

She sighed and met his eyes. "Help me take a bath?"

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	5. Five Years Later - Enobaria

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**Five Years Later – Enobaria**

"You're going, aren't you?"

Enobaria glowered at Tigris. "Yes, I'm going. They'll probably lynch me, but I'm going."

The feline designer of fur underwear raised an artfully shaped eyebrow. "Why would they lynch you? You're a victor, just like the rest."

"Yes, but I didn't support their precious little rebellion. Not that I even knew it was going on."

"And would you have supported it?"

The sharp-toothed victor shrugged noncommittally and fingered a pile of fur bras. "Maybe. I don't know. Doesn't matter now, does it?"

Tigris kept folding the tiger striped leggings that were suddenly, and oddly, popular in District 8. Her shipment was past due and she didn't want to disappoint. "Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Plutarch letting you victors speak?"

"If we want to, and I don't know if I do. What would I say anyway?"

"Something nice about the rebellion, especially Katniss. Just my opinion, though. Take it or leave it."

Enobaria growled and kicked the wooden crate by her feet. "Suck up to things I probably wouldn't have believed in if I knew about them? That's not me, Tigris."

"Aw, come now. I heard tell that when Coin made you all vote on one last Hunger Games, you said yes. Even that only the children of important Capitol people go in. Talk about that, only not with so much bitterness and blame. It'll make you look like you care, like you have a heart."

"Maybe I don't care," she huffed. "Maybe I don't have a heart."

Tigris shrugged. "If that's true, my friend, then you'd better keep your mouth shut. Just stand there and look pretty. And stay away from Johanna Mason. She might kill you on stage."

Enobaria rolled her eyes. "I don't know what I ever did to her. I think she's the craziest one of us left." She drummed her fingers against the counter. "I wonder if she's taken a bath yet."

The former stylist laughed wryly. "Maybe I'd best sew your mouth shut, girl. Might be the way to keep you safest over the next few days."

Enobaria only growled.

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	6. Five Years Later - Beetee

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**A/N: **I didn't thank Sally97 (who is so sweetly responsible for 5 of the 6 reviews this story has … isn't anyone else reading, lol?!) for her review last chapter so, without further ado… THANK YOU!

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**Five Years Later – Beetee**

Beetee pushed his chair away from the console and rubbed his fingers against his eyes. "I'm too old for this," he murmured into what he thought was an empty room.

"You're still a spring chicken," Plutarch Heavensbee said from behind him. "Sorry to startle you, but I just wanted to see if everything will be ready for the ceremony. Will it?"

Beetee sighed and nodded. "Yes. The fireworks will go off as planned, the video is ready, and the montage of heroes can be broadcast in the sky."

"And all of the districts will see this? Not just the people in the Capitol?"

He nodded again. "There's nothing to worry about, Plutarch."

The former Head Gamemaker and current Communications Director seemed satisfied with that and left the buzzing room.

Beetee rubbed his eyes once more and put his glasses back on. There was something to worry about, in his humble opinion. He was worried about his friends, the surviving victors. They were all haunted by the demons of what they'd seen and what they'd lived through. Now they would have to watch, even if it was by choice because none were required to be there, a ceremony on par with anything Coriolanus Snow had ever put on.

He worried it would set some of them back to the dark places they'd been in when Snow fell.

"Beetee?"

He spun his chair around again and found himself facing President Paylor. He blinked in surprise.

"I won't bother you long," she said before he could speak. "I don't like going behind anyone's back but I want you to use your judgment with what Plutarch has asked for. Tone it down, if need be. If it glorifies the Games in anyway, change it. Change it for the future generations, for the people today, and for the people who lost their lives in the Games. Okay?"

Beetee breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, President, of course. Thank you."

She smiled wearily. "Don't worry, I'll make sure Plutarch yells at me and not at you."

He thanked her again and turned back to his console.

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	7. Five Years Later - Annie

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**Five Years Later – Annie**

Annie swallowed thickly and stared out at dawn breaking over the ocean. She hadn't slept in days and no one would miss that fact when they looked at her. That bothered her. What bothered her more was that she had yet to figure out a way to get out of what she had to do in the next few days. On the other, more confusing hand, she didn't really want to get out of it. She wanted to go because she knew Finnick would go if he were there beside her. So she would go.

She took a deep breath when she heard the thud of small feet against the wooden floor.

"Mama! Mama! Is it time to get on the train yet?"

She turned and tried to smile at her four year old son, though she knew he would defiantly remind her that he was _almost five _if she called him four. Finn Odair loved nothing more than being on a boat on the water around his home. He liked swimming alright but he loved sailing more. Lately, though, since he'd been informed of the trip he would be taking, he had been fascinated by the impending train ride.

"Two hours, you little sea monster," she said, laughing softly at the eagerness in his sea green eyes. "Did you pack the toys you played with last night?"

Finn nodded, a shock of sun-bleached brown hair covering one eye. He steadfastly refused to have a haircut before the trip and she let him be. "Yes, Mama. Mama, did you ever go to the Capitol before?"

Annie's hands twitched and she stilled them by gripping the counter. "I did. Twice. Ten years ago and then five years ago."

The little boy knew some about what his parents had been a part of but not too much. He knew enough, though, that he didn't ask her any more just then. Instead, he wrapped his suntanned arms around her waist and hugged her.

Annie closed her eyes and hugged her son, wishing futilely that Finnick was there with his arms around her too.

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	8. Years Later

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**A/N: **This is a bit of a departure. It has scenes with almost all of the victors and it takes place at the Capitol events commemorating the five year anniversary of the Hunger Games.

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**Five Years Later**

Haymitch was on the verge of giving in to the overwhelming urge to punch Plutarch Heavensbee. The man had just thanked him for talking Katniss into coming back to the Capitol and quickly segued into a long discourse on how important it was to the people of Panem that she be there.

"I didn't talk her into it," he said, interrupting him without feeling any guilt. "I would think you'd know that Katniss can't be talked into anything. She can, however, be manipulated. You know, like you did with the hospital wing and her sister?"

"That was not manipulation," Plutarch protested. "I merely thought it would be a good idea to honor Priscilla."

"Primrose." Haymitch leaned close to his former partner in rebellion. "Peeta and I both know what you're doing. No doubt Hawthorne and even Katniss' mother do too. Stay away from her." He walked away before Plutarch argued or he hit the man.

"You look frustrated but sober, my friend," Beetee said as Haymitch walked up to him. "It's a very odd combination, especially for you."

He sunk into a chair beside the older man's wheelchair. "The kids need me. I can't let them down again."

"When did you let them down before?" Beetee smiled wryly when his old friend only grunted. "How is our Mockingjay and her baker boy?"

"Good, for the most part. They still have their moments of insanity but they're victors so it's probably par for the course. She hunts a lot, he bakes a lot." Haymitch crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "They share a house, and a bed now. So there's that."

"Definite progress," he agreed. "Where are they now?"

"With Effie Trinket and Katniss' old prep team. How are you, anyway? Still staying closeted away with your gadgets and computers?"

Beetee nodded. "Yes, that's my addiction, isn't it?"

"There are worse things to be addicted to," Haymitch assured him. "Trust me."

"Always, my friend, always."

They sat in companionable silence after that, waiting for the last of the living victors to arrive before things could really begin.

XxxxxX

Johanna stopped breathing when she saw the little boy.

She still had enough energy to move, though, so she hid behind Gale and tried to blend in with his brothers, his sister, and his mother.

"Johanna?"

She silently cursed her inability to blend in. "Annie," she said just as hesitantly as her own name had been said. "I didn't think you'd come."

Annie smiled and glanced down at the boy attached to her leg. "Finn saw the invitation and he's wanted to ride on a train for two years. I couldn't think of a better reason to come."

"You should have started with something smaller, something more fun. Come to visit me or something like that." Green eyes flashed to Johanna's face in disbelief. "Seriously, Annie. You don't need to be here and you're always invited to come visit me."

Annie nodded. "You should come visit us sometime. If you're okay with water, that is."

Johanna breathed a sigh of relief that getting back into water had been easier than she expected. "I might not go swimming but I'll come. Maybe I'll come back with you once this whole mess is over."

She picked up her son and settled him on her hip. "We'd like that, wouldn't we, Finn?" When he hid his face in her chest, she laughed softly. "He's shy. I know he looks like Finnick, and he can be sweet and charming, but he's shy too."

"Finnick would have been shy too, if he could have. I think." She felt stupid saying it because Annie knew better than she did. "Right?"

"Right," Annie agreed as she pulled Finn's face away from her shirt. "Johanna, this is my little sea monster. Finn, this is my friend Johanna. Can you say hello?"

"Hello, Johanna," he whispered before burying his face back in the white fabric of her shirt.

Johanna reached out and rubbed his back. "Hello, Finn. It's very nice to meet you."

He giggled but didn't look at her.

"He did like the train ride, though." Annie kissed his head. "So, shy or not, he likes to travel."

XxxxxX

Peeta felt better when Katniss' hand was in his. She'd made the move to put their hands together too, so he was able to stay calm while they made small talk, still awkwardly, with Effie, Venia, Octavia, and Flavius. He wasn't surprised to find out that Effie was one the people organizing the timing of Plutarch's ceremony and he congratulated the prep team on being picked to dress all of the victors.

"How's Haymitch?" Effie asked him while Katniss talked to the others. "He never answers when I ask."

"I suppose that means he's still Haymitch," Peeta laughed softly. "He's alright. He hovers over us, raises geese, and drinks. He doesn't drink as much as he used to, though."

"That's good. And you're okay? With the flashbacks and hijacking?"

He twitched his shoulders in a shrug. "Ups and downs. Mostly I worry about Katniss being hurt, rather than wanting to hurt her. I suppose that's good too." He tried to smile. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and forced herself to smile. "Yes, thank you. Well, I'd better go make sure everything's set for the dinner with President Paylor tonight. See you later, Peeta."

Peeta nodded and turned his attention back to Katniss just as she finished her conversation. "Are you sorry you came?" he whispered in her ear.

"Not yet," she whispered back. "I'm sorry if I made you come."

He shook his head. "You need to be here for the hospital part of things and I can't stay home without you. We're in this together, Katniss. Remember that?"

She smiled and leaned into him. "Always."

They stood together, a little apart from everyone else, after that while they waited for the dinner to begin. Before it did, though, President Paylor approached and asked them to follow her. She showed them what was planned and offered to remove anything that they didn't want shown. They said it was all okay with them, especially when she said Beetee had altered things.

"She thinks were going to lose it," Katniss whispered.

Peeta laughed and leaned close. "Well, you have assassinated two presidents."

XxxxxX

Finn Odair sat still while Posy Hawthorne wiped the cake and chocolate off his face after the luncheon before the final ceremony. "My daddy died," he announced abruptly. "I never met him."

She smiled at the boy she'd been playing with all afternoon. "I know. I met your daddy when I was just the age you are now."

He liked his ten year old friend even more. "You did? Was he nice? Mama still misses him."

"He was very nice," she assured him as she got the last bit of chocolate from behind his ear. "Very funny too. I remember a story he told about a sea turtle stealing his hat."

"Mama told me that story!" Finn chirped excitedly before he told her the story as best as he could remember it.

"That's the one," she giggled. "You help your mama not miss your daddy when you can, don't you?"

He nodded solemnly. "I hold her hand when she wants to put it over her ears and I cuddle with her whenever she wants, even if I really want to go play in the sand."

"You're a good boy, Finn Odair," Posy declared. "Don't ever change."

He blinked at her. "Why would I do that? Bye, Posy, Mama needs me."

She shook her head as he ran off, and then squealed when Gale lifted her off her feet and hugged her. "How's my little sister? Aside from getting charmed by small Odairs."

She swatted at him until he put her down. "Fine. How's Johanna Mason?" she countered in a singsong voice. "Mother says to tell you that we had better be invited to the wedding."

"Wedding? And Johanna Mason in the same sentence? Doubtful, little sister."

"Then it's like Greasy Sae told Vick; you're friends with benefits."

Gale's gray eyes went wide. "What in the world happened to District 12? You don't know what that means, do you?"

"I do," she huffed. "I asked Katniss and she told me."

He was a little surprised Katniss knew, but he didn't say that. "I'm coming home for a visit after this. Think that'll be alright?"

Posy threw her arms around her brother. "You have to come home, Gale. Rory needs you. So do Mother and Vick and me. I need you because it's my birthday. Please, please come home."

He laughed and twisted away from her. "I just said I was coming home, little sister. Calm down."

"Childhood excitement should never be squelched, Gale," Beetee said to Posy's obvious satisfaction. "I would think you'd know that."

"Not squelching her excitement," he countered. "Only asking her not to scream in my ear. Again."

"Come home more and I won't have to scream when you do," she pouted. "You're going to talk about boring things so I'm going to play with Finn some more until he has to go to bed."

He kissed her cheek and watched her run away.

"You haven't been home in five years?" Beetee asked quietly.

"No, I went home twice. For a day each time, then I ran away like a coward." Gale wasn't proud of the fact but, at least, the first time had been because Katniss was so upset when she saw him that she'd plunged an arrow into Haymitch's leg when he tried to hold her back. "Haymitch says she and Peeta are doing good now, so if they're still stable after all this, I should go back for Posy's tenth birthday."

"Indeed you should. It'll be good for you and especially for Katniss. I'm certainly no expert in anything, but it would seem like she needs to finish healing before she can heal."

Gale shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest as Katniss and Peeta stepped off the elevator. "I'm not pushing myself on her. If she needs me to stay away, I'll stay away. If she comes to me, I'll do whatever I can to keep her as my friend."

"Thereby defining why you need to go home and let her confront you, if that's what she wants," Beetee added, happy to note that Haymitch's telephoned predictions over how much the pair still meant to each other, even if neither would admit it, were true.

"If that's what who wants? Johanna?"

Gale spun around and wondered how Katniss could have snuck up on him when she'd only just arrived. "Not Johanna, no," he stammered. He was perturbed to notice that Beetee had wheeled himself away. "You. We were talking about you."

Her gray eyes flashed across the room, found Peeta talking to Annie, and turned back to him. "Why were you talking about me? What would I want?"

He kept his eyes locked on hers even though he wanted to look away, because he owed their friendship that. "Beetee asked if I'd been home. I told him how you stabbed Haymitch with the arrow the first time. So he said I should let you confront me if you want to. You know, stab me this time?"

Katniss blinked slowly at him. "I'm not going to stab you. I'm not saying everything can be like it was, but I don't want you to avoid your family to protect me. Are you coming home for Posy's birthday party?"

"She's having an actual party?"

She allowed herself a smile. "Yes, but it's a surprise so don't tell her. You're coming?"

He nodded.

She squared her shoulders. "Good." She bit the inside of her lip and searched the room again. "I can't talk here, in the Capitol. I'm sorry. We can try and talk when you're in 12, okay?"

Gale held back his relieved sigh until after he nodded and after she hurried away, to Peeta's side.

"How's Gale?" he asked when she linked her fingers through his.

"Fine, I suppose. He's coming to 12 after this."

"Posy will be thrilled." He smiled as he watched her let Finn run his sticky fingers through her hair. "Just a few more hours, Katniss, then we can go home."

She sagged against him. "We still have the hospital and the televised ceremony."

"And they'll only take a few hours. Annie told me she only agreed to come on the condition that Plutarch have a hovercraft take her home tonight. She says we can ride with her, and take the hovercraft the rest of the way to 12 or take a train later."

Finn raced over as if he'd heard mention of his home. "Please come to my house, Katniss and Peeta," he begged, having got over his initial wariness around them that had come up when Katniss burst into tears the first time she saw him. "Please, please!"

"Finn," Annie scolded. "They don't have to come to our house. They might just come to District 4, if they want. Stop begging, they know they're invited." She didn't sound like she thought they'd come and she jumped when Katniss nodded.

"I'd like to spend some time with you and Finn by the ocean," she said. "I didn't get to see much of the district or the ocean on our Victory Tour. Maybe we could come for a few days?"

Annie allowed herself a smile. "Of course, we'd be happy to show you around."

"Can they come on my boat, Mama? Can they?" Finn demanded as he climbed part of the way up his mother, until she lifted him onto her hip. "Do you want to come on my boat?"

"_You_ have your very own boat?" Peeta asked in an overdramatically awed voice. He looked properly shocked when Finn nodded proudly. "In that case, we will come on your boat. I don't know how to swim, though, so you'll have to rescue me if I fall of the boat, okay?"

The little boy nodded solemnly. "I can do that, Peeta. Don't worry."

"I won't, Finn. I've always been safe around you, your mother, and your father." He would have said more but Plutarch announced that it was time to move on to the hospital and then to the televised ceremony.

Annie turned Finn reluctantly over to Octavia, who had moved to District 4 and opened a shop along with becoming a surrogate aunt to the boy and a friend to Annie. She wasn't ready to let all of Panem see her son, see Finnick's son, and no amount of persuading on the part of Plutarch Heavensbee could convince her otherwise.

The seven remaining victors put on their masks of impassivity when they reached the hospital. Plutarch had only really cared that the District 12 victors be there, because they knew Priscilla, as he called her, best but Johanna, Annie, and Beetee had come to support District 12 and Enobaria hadn't been able to think of a good reason not to be there.

Katniss was too emotional to speak and Peeta froze when Plutarch put the microphone in front of him.

Haymitch growled at the former Gamemaker and took the microphone before delivering both the speech the younger pair had written down and the one he'd have given about why remembering Primrose was important to Panem.

"She wanted to be a doctor," he said, as Katniss and her mother stared at him when he broke away from the script. "She wanted to be a doctor because she wanted to heal what was wrong in this world. Sickness, injury, sadness … Primrose Everdeen saw the potential for good everywhere she looked. She knew it was in all of us and she wanted nothing more from life than to be able to help us be a little bit better.

"In District 13, she trained as a medic but she also spent as much time as she could with the children. There is no better way to honor Primrose, to do what she would do if she were here, than to provide the absolute best care for the children of Panem in her name. In fact, I think it would be a good idea if every district had a medical center focused solely on the children. Prim knew children are the future, not some tool to be used against us. We have to protect and take care of them. For Primrose, for ourselves, and for them."

Katniss threw herself into her mentor's arms once he handed the microphone back to Plutarch. He held her for ten minutes while she cried and then he carried her to the car that would take them to the City Center.

They hadn't decided who would speak there, but Johanna offered with the reasoning that Katniss and Peeta literally couldn't, Annie didn't want to, Haymitch just had, and no one really cared what Beetee and Enobaria had to say – no offense to them. Everyone agreed, even if Plutarch looked a little nervous about handing the most important microphone to the wildcard of the bunch.

Johanna ordered Gale to stand behind her, and he did when no one objected.

"It may look like tonight, like the last few days, have been about celebrating the end of something terrible. And it's true. For us, though, for Beetee, Haymitch, Enobaria, Annie, Peeta, Katniss, and myself, these last few days have been about the people who aren't on the stage with us. They are important to the story too.

"There will be faces projected into the sky tonight and onto screens around Panem. Cheer them, yes, for having survived the Hunger Games, but remember too that someone loved them and someone misses them. The victors not on this stage with us tonight were our friends and they were the people we loved."

Johanna took a deep breath and gripped Gale's hand. "Celebrate that the Games are finished, that no more children will die in the Hunger Games. Help us honor what we lost and what we've gained."

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	9. Ten Years Later - Johanna

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**Ten Years Later – Johanna**

"We're not going to have any trees left if you keep this up."

Johanna spun around and, when she saw that it was only Gale standing behind her, she let the ax fall to the ground beside her booted foot. "Seriously? Ten years and you still haven't figured out that sneaking up on a victor with a weapon is a bad idea?"

"Ten years and you haven't axed me yet," he argued, leaning against the post that held up the wooden deck she'd built for them. "What's wrong, Jo? Just the Capitol trip? Something else?"

She picked the ax up and threw it at the ground. "The Capitol trip. Other stuff."

"Seriously? Ten years and you still haven't figured out that it's easiest to just talk to me?"

She scowled and sat down on the stump of the newly cut down tree. "I started my period today," she said without looking at him. "I was late, and I wanted to stay late. Nine months late."

He threaded his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry, Jo. I want to have a baby with you too. I want to give you that."

"You could," she muttered. "You could give anyone a baby, I'm sure. I'm the broken one."

Johanna had cried exactly four times in the ten years he'd known her, he hated to hear her cry. Gale scooped her up from the stump and sat down beneath her. "You're not broken, Jo," he whispered in her ear. "So you can't have a baby, we'll adopt one. You told me about how you were an orphan and how you wished you had parents to love you. We both know there are still a lot of kids who are you thirty years ago. We'll give one of them a loving home."

She sniffled and nodded. "Okay, but don't mention my age again. The Capitol broke me, too, so I may kill Plutarch when we get to the Capitol."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "We'll figure out how to adopt a baby while we're there."

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	10. Ten Years Later - Haymitch

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**PEOPLE! Two of you, one who didn't even sign in, told me that it was a) annoying you and b) a pet peeve that I spelled it AX in the last chapter about Johanna when you say it should be AXE. A word to the wise, before you correct someone, look into whether you're right, you're wrong, or both people are right. In this case, we're all right. Most Americans (such as yours truly) spell it AX and most non-US English speakers spell it AXE. **

**See? Everybody's right! Google it!**

**I wouldn't come into your story and correct you on spelling and grammar, especially if I could be wrong (and especially if I didn't have the guts to sign in and leave the review!), so please by kind and don't come into mine and do it.**

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**Ten Years Later – Haymitch**

"Am I old?"

Hazelle quirked an eyebrow at Haymitch's question. "I suppose it depends on how you define old," she said vaguely, "and that's the only answer you're getting from me to make sure you don't tell me if I'm old or not."

"Tell yourself, then," he suggested. "Are you old? We're the same age, about, so that'll answer my question."

She sipped her tea and rocked in the chair on his porch. "My oldest child is almost thirty and my baby is fifteen. You won the Hunger Games thirty-five years ago. Yes, Haymitch Abernathy, we are old."

He held up his bottle and tapped it against her cup. "Well, then, at least we can be old together." They sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Vick came to see me. He asked if I'm planning to, and I quote, make an honest woman of you."

Hazelle spit tea, luckily cold, out of her nose. "What did you tell him?"

Haymitch shrugged. "Some line about how I would if you wanted me to." He stared at the lip of the bottle in his hands and sighed. "Do you want me to?"

She looked across the street, into the house where her family lived. Her youngest baby was fifteen and two of her sons didn't even live with her anymore. She felt selfish, but it was time to live for herself after spending so long living for them. "Yes," she breathed. "Make an honest woman of me."

He nodded and tapped his bottle against her cup again. "Find out if Gale can be here after the Capitol trip, I'll get Peeta to make the bread."

They fell into companionable silence after that.

They didn't need to say a lot to be together, they never had. They'd known each other as children and they might have been married if Haymitch hadn't been reaped. She cared about him, even when he told her not to, that he wasn't worth it. He liked that she didn't listen to him.

"You're coming, right?" he asked.

She nodded. "Of course I am."

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	11. Ten Years Later - Annie

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a word of this.

**Ten Years Later – Annie**

Annie pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed as she sat in the fading light of day on the beach outside her home. She'd spent the last five years carefully avoiding having to go to the Capitol for any reason whatsoever. Now it was time to go again.

She didn't want to go.

She didn't want anyone to look at her and pity her. That's what she figured it would be now, pity. The five year anniversary of the end of the Hunger Games was celebration of what had changed, now would be the time to pity what had been lost.

She worried too she was imagining things. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that she'd fall back into what used to make her so frightened. It was probably even natural.

"Mama?" Finn called out softly, careful not to startle her. "I packed my stuff. We can go to the train station first thing in the morning. We are going, aren't we?"

She exhaled deeply and nodded. "Of course we are. You want to, don't you?"

He ran his fingers through his shaggy, sunbleached hair. "I do. But only on one condition."

Annie blinked and tried to focus better. "What condition, Finn?" She tried not to sound scared of what he might say.

He reached out and squeezed her hand tightly. "I won't stay with Octavia while you go out and do stuff. I want to be by your side, Mama. You need me. You know you need me, so you can't pawn me off to hide me. My father wouldn't hide, and leave you on your own, and I'm not going to either."

She bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt not to cry. Finn was only ten, and he sound like Finnick had the last time she saw him. Annie nodded reluctantly. "Okay, sea monster, you can do whatever you want in the Capitol. I won't stop you."

Finn smiled and pulled on her hand so she'd lean down. He kissed her cheek when she did. "Can I take my new trident?"

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